Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said the war can end only if Ukraine’s Defense Forces withdraw from Donbas, while agreeing with US President Donald Trump that peace “has come significantly closer.”
Peskov’s comments on the conditions for ending the war in Ukraine were reported December 29 by Russia’s state news agency TASS. He said the Kremlin will assess the meeting between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky once it receives information from the United States.
To halt hostilities, Kyiv must withdraw troops “to the administrative borders” of Donbas, Peskov said, without clarifying whether Russia also expects a pullback from the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions.
He added that Russian President Vladimir Putin did not discuss with Trump the possibility of a Christmas truce in Ukraine, and called it inappropriate to comment publicly on creating a free-trade zone in Donbas or on joint management of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.
Peskov said the Kremlin does not understand what Zelensky meant when he said Moscow needs to prepare a “Plan B” for the war in Ukraine, arguing that Russia “is thinking about ending hostilities in the context of achieving its goals.”
The Kremlin spokesperson said another Trump-Putin phone call is expected “in the near future,” and that there are no plans for a Putin-Zelensky dialogue.
Trump called Putin ahead of his December 28 meeting with Zelensky.
Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said Putin and Trump discussed the “Ukrainian conflict” by phone. According to Ushakov, both presidents believe a temporary truce proposed by Ukrainians and Europeans “only leads to prolonging” the war.
Trump called his talks with Zelensky “wonderful” and said agreements on security guarantees for Ukraine are almost 95% complete. He added that the issue of occupied Ukrainian territories, including Donbas, remains unresolved.
